Intersectional feminism examines the overlapping systems of oppression and discrimination that women face due to their ethnicity, sexuality, and economic background.
In 1981, she received a bachelor's degree in government and Africana studies from Cornell University,[8] where she was a member of the Quill and Dagger senior Honors' Society.
[15] In 1991, Crenshaw assisted the legal team representing Anita Hill at the U.S. Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
[17] In 1995, Crenshaw was appointed full professor at Columbia Law School, where she is the founder and director of the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, established in 2011.
[19] In 1996, Crenshaw became the co-founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum (AAPF), a think tank focused on "dismantling structural inequality" and "advancing and expanding racial justice, gender equality, and the indivisibility of all human rights, both in the U.S. and internationally.
Crenshaw was a member of the Domestic Strategy Group at the Aspen Institute from 1992 to 1995,[22] the Women's Media Initiative,[23] and is a regular commentator on NPR's The Tavis Smiley Show.
[26][27] Crenshaw's book with Luke Charles Harris & George Lipsitz, The Race Track: How the Myth of Equal Opportunity Defeats Racial Justice, is scheduled for publication December 2025.
[31][32][33] Crenshaw's inspiration for the theory started while she was still in college at Cornell University when she realized that the gender aspect of race was extremely underdeveloped.
[2] Anti-discrimination laws and the justice system's attempt to remedy discrimination are limited and operate on a singular axis, only accounting for one identity at a time.
In DeGraffenreid v. General Motors,[38] a group of African-American women argued they received compound discrimination, excluding them from employment opportunities.
[2] Crenshaw has also discusses intersectionality in connection to her experience as part of the 1991 legal team for Anita Hill, the woman who accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment.
The two lines of the argument focused on the rights of women and Hill's experience of being violated as a woman, on the one hand, and on the other, the appeal to forgive Thomas or turn a blind eye to his conduct due to his opportunity to become only the second African American to serve on the United States Supreme Court.
"It was like one of these moments where you literally feel that you have been kicked out of your community, all because you are trying to introduce and talk about the way that African American women have experienced sexual harassment and violence.
Since the 2010s, Crenshaw has spoken out against misinterpretations of intersectionality, saying that some have wrongfully characterized it as a blanket term for "complicated" problems, "identity politics on steroids," or "a mechanism to turn white men into new pariahs.
The realignment would be essential "to reflect the values of inclusion, equal opportunity and shared fate that has propelled our historic struggle for racial justice moving forward".
Crenshaw is known for establishing the concept of intersectionality, which examines how race, class, gender, and other characteristics overlap and compound to explain systemic discrimination and inequality in society.
[53] In 2001, Crenshaw wrote a paper on Race and Gender discrimination for the United Nation's World Conference on Racism which was leading in creating policy that benefiting minority groups globally.
[56] After a three-day celebration of her work, University President Ron Liebowitz presented Crenshaw with the Toby Gittler award at a ceremony following the lecture.
[58] In 2021, Crenshaw was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for her innovative work and accomplishments in pioneering intersectionality, civil rights, critical race theory, and the law.